5 times WWE Superstars wrestled without rehearsing a match

Longtime fans of WWE and professional wrestling might be fully aware by this point that the matches that we witness on our TV screens are pre-planned and the wrestlers who present a match in the ring have gone through the match beforehand. The same goes for promos. Wrestlers are either given a script or bullet points, which they turn into promos to advance storylines.

When it comes to matches, wrestlers need to make sure that they have properly rehearsed the match with their opponents, or else there are chances that they would botch a bunch of spots in the match. There have been several instances in the history of WWE where Superstars wrestled a match without rehearsing it beforehand. In this slideshow, we will take a look at five instances where WWE Superstars revealed publicly that they wrestled a match without rehearsing it.

#5 Brock Lesnar vs Dean Ambrose (WWE WrestleMania 32)

The road to WWE WrestleMania 32 saw Brock Lesnar kicking off a rivalry with Dean Ambrose, and fans were beyond excited for what could be an incredible clash of styles. The story of The Lunatic Fringe trying everything he could to put down The Beast was one that intrigued many. The end result, however, was a big disappointment. Ambrose later revealed that Lesnar wasn't interested at all in putting together the match, and refused to rehearse for it as well.

During the week you have scheduled rehearsals. We have one scheduled rehearsal at like 11:00 pm Saturday night the day before the show at the stadium. He never even came to the hotel. He didn’t get in till late Saturday night. We end up not even doing that because he’s like we don’t need to do that.

When all was said and done, Brock Lesnar came out victorious at The Show of Shows, and Ambrose didn't get much of an offense in what was an incredibly underwhelming match.

#4 Adam Cole vs Pat McAfee (NXT TakeOver: XXX)

Mere weeks before WWE NXT TakeOver: XXX, Adam Cole appeared on Pat McAfee's talk show and things suddenly heated up during a discussion. Cole hurled profanities and stormed out of the set, kicking off a rivalry that led to a match at WWE NXT TakeOver: XXX. Soon after the event came to an end, it was revealed that these two men hadn't rehearsed their match.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio revealed that both competitors didn't rehearse their match beforehand, and did it on the fly. Meltzer went on to heap praise on the match for its quality, and dubbed it as "really cool".

It is certainly impressive that Pat McAfee managed to give us a banger despite not being a seasoned veteran of the squared circle. Adam Cole is one of the best wrestlers out there, and his experience in the ring was a major factor in the match hitting on all cylinders, despite no rehearsal. Cole came out the victor at WWE NXT TakeOver: XXX, finally putting an end to the rivalry.

#3 Ronda Rousey vs Natalya (WWE RAW)

It's not a secret that Ronda Rousey and Natalya are very close. Rousey and Natalya are good friends in real life and the two have always supported each other behind the scenes. During Rousey's reign as WWE RAW Women's Champion in late 2018, she took on Natalya on an episode of RAW. While talking about the outing on Busted Open, Natalya revealed that the two women didn't rehearse the match at all, and called it entirely in the ring.

Nobody even really knows this, but that match I had with Ronda, we called that entire match in the ring. We didn't have any time to plan, meet, rehearse, prepare, or anything. We called the match entirely in the ring, I needed her to trust me and I needed her to listen, and she did.

Natalya had nothing but praise for Ronda and stated that she has grown enough to the point that she doesn't need to rehearse matches. The match in question saw Rousey defeating Natalya to retain her title belt. Rousey held on to the belt for around three more months, before dropping it to Becky Lynch at WWE WrestleMania 35.

#2 Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT TakeOver: Dallas)

Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura are currently mainstays on WWE SmackDown, but there was a time a long while ago when they were wowing the WWE Universe in NXT. Back in April 2016, WWE presented NXT TakeOver: Dallas, with the show boasting a jam-packed card from top to bottom. One of the most anticipated matches on the card was Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sami Zayn in a singles contest. Around a month after delivering this classic, Zayn spoke with Chris Jericho on his podcast and revealed that the duo didn't interact before the match one bit.

We’ve met maybe once. We never touched and I remember Matt Bloom, who’s head of the WWE performance center now was saying, ‘hey, maybe you guys want to get in the pc and spar a little or something like that. I don’t want the first time you guys get in the ring ever, the first time you touch, to be at this big match.’ and unbeknownst to me, Nakamura said the same thing i said, ‘no, no, no. I prefer that,’ which is a dangerous thing, but it’s what i know. Yes, i prefer for the first time to be in the show, instead of a ‘hey, lets feel it out in the ring’ [and] feel how this guy moves and stuff. So we ended up putting something together.

It took two devastating Kinshasas for Nakamura to finish off Zayn. The match lasted a little over 20 minutes and was one of the very best on that card. Both men did well for themselves following their NXT exits, and are currently working on the Blue brand. Nakamura and Zayn, along with Cesaro, formed "Artist Collective" and the trio feuded with Drew Gulak and Daniel Bryan on the road to WWE WrestleMania. Zayn and Cesaro won their respective matches against Bryan and Gulak at The Show of Shows.

#1 Triple H vs Batista (WrestleMania 35)

Ric Flair's birthday celebration on an episode of WWE RAW in early 2019 didn't go as planned. WWE veteran Batista made his return to the company and assaulted Flair in a backstage are, to kick off a feud with WWE EVP Triple H. The duo faced each other on The Grandest Stage Of Them All, in a No Holds Barred match.

While talking about the contest later, The Animal made a surprising revelation and stated that the duo didn't rehearse their epic WWE WrestleMania encounter beforehand. Both men discussed the match and came to the conclusion that they knew each other very well and it would be best to be safe and lock horns directly at WrestleMania.

We were scheduled to train, and we did go to the training facility, but we didn’t train. Because he said ‘I can get in the ring, and I can work out and I can feel a little more confident,’ He said, ‘or I can get in the ring and I can re-tear my pec.’ He said, ‘let’s be safe about this, we’ve been in the ring enough, we know each other.’ So we did. We did not touch each other in the ring until we got to WrestleMania, that was it. So I am really proud of what we could accomplish. Because it could’ve been better, it could’ve been better, but it could’ve been a lot f—ing worse. Like, It could’ve been disastrous and I think, considering, I’m very proud of what we accomplished.

The eventual match was a 25-minute outing that saw both men beating the tar out of each other. Triple H and Batista were together in Evolution, back in 2003-05, and were well aware of each other's wrestling styles and moves. In fact, the two had wrestled at The Show of Shows previously, at WWE WrestleMania 21. The main event of that night saw Batista defeating The Game to win his first World title. In their WrestleMania rematch, Triple H evened the score with some help from Ric Flair, and Batista announced his retirement following the match.

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Edited by Anirban Banerjee